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Post by 3balls on Aug 17, 2008 9:19:59 GMT -5
I got a hold of a little black bear. today i skined out the head and paw's. and started fleshing the hide. i did'nt know bear hide was so thin. I scraped right down to the hair.. this is my first bear any info or tips would be nice.
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Post by joanne2 on Aug 17, 2008 15:04:07 GMT -5
You have to turn the ears. (which means that you need to remove the cartilage from them). Just like turning them inside out.. Pretty easy..just take your time and pare it all away carefully.
I've been using a powerwasher and a shop vac to help me out a lot with bear skins. I've done 5 of 'em now, so far..One problem lies in those roots being so close to the surface at this time of year. You don't want to do much abrading with it as the hair will tend to 'pull through to the flesh side'. Another issue is that you don't wan't to degrease them too well or it will be difficult to get them soft AND dry.. so do the best you can to get your skin and fur clean and dry by washing it with a strong dish detergent (I like concentrated Dawn) and warm water.. if you can get away with it.. use your washing machine and the spin cycle and then a really strong shop vacuum to blow the hair dry.. keeping that hair wet or damp is the quickest way to losing the hair but I sure as hell don't like working on anything that is nasty filthy dirty.. etc. Anyway I love working with the bear skins.. such amazingly beautiful animals. Shame to kill them however, but people do. Good not to waste any of the bear that once lived wild and free. Hope this helps, good luck..
ps.. do not allow the bear to stay warm for too long in the water or during fleshing, etc.. always work on the very cold raw skins.. time spent outside the freezer is the most likeliest time for bacteria to multiply.. so a freezing cold raw bear skin is the best bear skin.. and also a DRY one.. so COLD AND DRY.. Good luck..look fwd to seeing your tanned skin. Go for it.
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Post by 3balls on Aug 17, 2008 21:29:56 GMT -5
I'm going to powerwash it monday. i did forget about the ears. thank for the tips joanne. did you win the battle on that barn?
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Post by joanne2 on Aug 18, 2008 0:37:46 GMT -5
Have about 6 more feet of the northeast corner yet to side, thx. :-)
Be extra careful to keep those ears dry. difficult as they are like little pockets.. doesn't hurt to get those dry as possible adding a bit of borax to them, and in and around the claws as well.. Those areas seem to really stay damp AWHILE! Moisture catchers. I used it as a precaution. You want to be very cautious about stressing the areas around the base of the ears out too much, just in handling it too.. once lost about a dime size area of fur near the base of one of the first couple bear skins and this is what I attributed that fault to. You couldn't really tell it, unless you were 'looking' but I knew it was there ;-).
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Post by 3balls on Aug 18, 2008 6:45:26 GMT -5
after you flesh, wash and dry the fur did you salt or pickel it? when applying the brains was it a paste? soften it on a frame or by hand? sorry so many ??
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Post by joanne2 on Aug 18, 2008 9:01:21 GMT -5
I didn't salt or pickle mine.. Just used a thick mix of brains. Didn't work well with the last two as my machine removes the grease TOO well. So if you go with a 3500 psi washer equipped with a turbo nozzle you need to go with the taxidermists products for best results. I had quite a bit of hair come through to the flesh side of my last two.. so didn't care for that! You couldn't tell from the fur side but I could very easily see what works best and how to avoid that now from experience. I wouldn't recommend a power washer that is extremely powerful and no turbo as the bear are very thin.. so chances are you may be just fine.. I would much rather flesh and wash the bear with a turbo nozzle rather than not however as they are just extremely dirty and greasy animals.. My skins look really great in the raw and using the products Bruce Rittel has on the market would probably produce the best results. I think to avoid anxiety you can salt it and loosely freeze it.. don't roll it tight if you decide to go with pickling you just want to keep it preserved and still have it ready to easy go into the pickle. The taxidermists put out a zillion products so sorry if my answers are quite vague at this point. I did the best I could with what I had and that was basically a horseblinder metal softening tool and a helluva lot of time and patience,(a little soap and water and plenty of monkey grease) lol..I am sorry to be quite so vague, 3 balls.. but let's just say that money can buy you a lot more comfort than the alternative (if you're fussy) and I prefer hides and skins to be nice and clean! Rather then to feel greasy or grimy in the least.. Your call. If you go with Bruce Rittel's products chances are more that likely that he could be very helpful with any questions you that might have regarding using his products. He's one hell of a nice guy and well he doesn't come off as snobbish in the least, either. It's up to you how much time effort and $$ you want to put into tanning this bear skin.. Hard telling whether you might end up wishing you'd shipped it off to a tannery... kind of like the more you put into it the more you get out of it.. lol. more vague..:-) I don't mind your questions a bit.
I might try a sulfuric acid pickle on one some day in the order of tighter than the bark on a tree cheapness some day.. I've done a few furs using the sulfuric acid and they came out really nice.. so.... Oh geez..don't ask.. I will tell you that I got the info out of a Horace Kephart book called Camping and Woodcraft. It's a great book.. should add it to the thread about good books to have.
anyway I sure hope my replies have been helpful and not too terribly confusing! :-) anyway my pleasure to try to be helpful to you. I just love the bear furs.. all of them really.. nice clean furs are AWESOME.
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Post by paskinner on Aug 18, 2008 12:38:08 GMT -5
I did one bear using rittel's safety acid, washed it with dish soap and used some kind of tanning oil in place of brains, as I recall. It came out good, but it had already been prepped for me, ears and feet were skinned out by the guy who killed it.
You could buy rittel's EZ tan kit, I believe it comes with directions. I'm also impressed with Bruce Rittel's stuff for all furs.
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Post by joanne2 on Aug 18, 2008 15:27:34 GMT -5
;-)
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Post by 3balls on Aug 19, 2008 6:48:25 GMT -5
well i guess i'm going to the big city for the rest of the week. put the hide back in the frezzer, this new job i'm doing kinda sucks
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Post by longtrail on Aug 19, 2008 8:50:08 GMT -5
Great conversation about the care of the bear. We are lucky to have your experiences, Paulette, keeps us from having to make our own mistakes when we can learn from yours. Thanks for sharing. Way back when I first started making items from fur, I was given a bear hide. I have not idea how it was tanned, didn't even enter my brain to think about it at the time. But it was definately salted. The hide was a bit stiff but I made a vest from it anyway. LIned it with red wool and it was a great looking vest. BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Because of the salt in the hide, and living where I was, soggy western Oregon, that damn vest was always damp! I finally tossed it in the garbage, not knowing what else to do with it. Thats the only experience I have had with bear hides. Not informaiton on what to do, but what not to do. Seems I'm definately and expert on what not to do. And unfortunately have learned that from experience!! sigh. Nice looking bear 3balls
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